Edgar and Keir win hard-fought Clio races
CROFT 750MC 9-10 APRIL
Scott Edgar and, in bizarre circumstances, Christopher Keir – both notably in older
182 models – took the wins in the new-look Renault Clio Sport Championship as the
750 Motor Club’s 2022 season got under way amid intermittent hail at Croft.
Former karting ace Owain Rosser, in a newer 197, qualified on pole for the opening Clio encounter – his car racing debut – but a loss of power off the start meant he ended the opening lap in 16th. In contrast, Edgar made a rocket launch to go from seventh into the lead at the opening bend, Clervaux, but then came nine very hard laps to stay ahead of those behind.
Tim Bentley (182) initially took up the chase before giving way to Justin Griffiths’s 197. Bentley, though, retaliated, diving back past exiting the Jim Clark Esses and taking fellow 182 racers, reigning champion Jack Dwane and Keir, with him. Dwane closed in but Edgar held strong for his second win in the category. Dwane took second, while Griffiths held off Keir for his first outright podium result in third.
After lap one of race two on Sunday, a first victory for a 197 looked a very real possibility. Rosser again started on pole, but Griffiths got the jump on him at the start and, together, they started to build a gap to the following Keir and Dwane.
On lap two, though, there was contact between Griffiths and Rosser entering the complex. Both were eliminated, and suddenly Keir was leading a Clio race for the first time. Like Edgar the day before, he had Dwane in his mirrors, but also like Edgar he held his nerve to record a first ever win – and at his home circuit.
But things had been far from straightforward inside the car for the Newcastle-upon-tyne driver. “The right-hand air vent popped out of the dashboard and got caught under the pedals – I spent a lap trying to fish it out with my hand and managed to sling it over my shoulder, only for the left one to then do the same!” said Keir. “Luckily I managed to grab that one too and throw it in the boot with the other one. They spent the rest of the race rattling around behind me.”
As expected, the Honda Civic Type Rs of Philip Wright and Ryan Polley were the winners of two very entertaining
Hot Hatch races, but both were almost defeated by Kris Mccloy’s older Civic, much improved with a punchier KT24 Honda Accord engine.
Mccloy qualified on pole for the opener and led it for the first five laps until a slight hesitation lapping a backmarker created the tiniest of gaps for Wright to wriggle
through as they approached Barcroft. By Sunny In, Polley was also through as Mccloy kept going to take third.
Wright’s win gave him pole for race two, but he knew beforehand he would be beaten off the line. “We’d needed to change the gearbox on Friday night/saturday morning before qualifying and, with the new one, I couldn’t change from first to second so needed to start in second,” he explained.
Sure enough, Polley and Mccloy were ahead of him on the run to Clervaux and another intense three-way fight between them followed. But Mccloy was again out of luck when his engine spluttered exiting the chicane, Wright’s Type R rear-ending the Civic as he swerved to avoid it. Undeterred, Wright was then able to close in on Polley but there was no way through, hence a win and a second apiece.
Importantly in the outright championship, Paul Jarvis (Citroen Saxo VTS) took a pair of Class B wins. Reigning champion David Drinkwater (BMW Compact) won Class C in race one, but in race two suffered a rare defeat as Paul Dyrdal (Saxo VTR) took the honours.
Christopher Nylan impressively took pole and victory on his debut in the Type R Trophy, taking advantage of a ferocious scrap for second behind him to build a seven-second lead by the end. Mark Dicken finished runner-up but later confessed he’d “never defended like that in my life” to keep Jake Hewlett behind. Hewlett, a semi-pro sim racer, had remarkably qualified second fastest to Nylan for his first ever car race before finishing it in third.
Another third for Hewlett in race two (starting with race one’s top 10 reversed) was to follow, but in different circumstances. Travis Coyne was the winner on the road and believed he had secured his first win in the category, only for officials to later disqualify him from the results after he momentarily lost control under double waved yellow flags at Clervaux.
This meant Joe Jessup, who’d muscled his way past Hewlett in a hard but fair move at Clervaux to be second on the road, thus inherited the victory. Matt
Digby was second, with Hewlett third after falling back in his clash with Jessup.
With chief rival Michael Cutt starting from the rear after braking problems in qualifying, Graham Crowhurst dominated the opening BMW Car Club Racing encounter, which finished behind the safety car. Cutt was able to come through for second ahead of Paul Cook as M3s inevitably filled the lead positions.
Cutt was not to be denied in race two, leading from start to finish, but he had Crowhurst right behind him all the way. Cook was again third.
Richard Webb in his newly built Spire RGBR was untouchable in both Sports 1000 races. Michael Roots (Mittell MC-53) and reigning champion Ryan Yarrow (Spire GT3-Y) were second and third each time. Yarrow’s two outings were not without incident: in race one he survived a spin while avoiding Paul Smith’s faltering
Mittell SSRD MC-53, and in race two he finished second on the road but dropped to third with a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
Pip Hammond (Vauxhall Nova GTE) survived attacks from Stewart Place and Chris Dear (both in Peugeot 205 GTIS) to win the opening Classic Stock Hatch race. Place was pressing him hard until he retired with a suspected blown valve, which prevented him starting race two from pole. Pete Morgan (Ford Fiesta XR2) won race two ahead of Hammond, these two well clear of the rest after Dear had slowed with electrical problems.